In Beautiful Stranger, finance whiz Sara Dillon met the irresistibly sexy Brit, Max Stella, at a New York City club. Through the series we’ve watched them learn to balance commitment with their less than private brand of playfulness. In Beautiful Beloved, Max and Sara take it to the next step. But the question is: Will they be able to find a balance between the wild sexcapades they aren’t ready to retire, and the demands of parenthood that come along with their new Beautiful bundle of joy? Parenthood: it’s not for the weak of heart.

Another in between novella, another slight let down. But this time it’s not for the reasons you think. Beautiful Beloved follows Sara and Max as they try to juggle work, married life and a new baby girl. The couple tries to also add in their old life, but with a crying newborn it isn’t easy. Their first attempt at ‘date night’ goes horribly wrong, between Sara’s panic that the baby – Anna – isn’t taking the bottle that George is trying to feed her, some alfredo being spilled on Max’s pants and the incident with their car, it’s an epic fail. But then, when Max’s brother Niall comes to town for a visit their prayers are answered because Anna just loves Niall. They get back to their old ways and realize that it can be done, they just have to have patience like they did at the beginning of their relationship.

I know what you’re asking, why didn’t I like this novella since from the sound of it there wasn’t that much sex? Well, there kind of was, there was a lot of oral going around. But I also didn’t like the jump between Chloe and Bennett’s wedding to Sara already having the baby and um…when exactly did those two get married? I felt like I missed a major milestone in their life, especially since the other books had a really nice timeline flow.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. While on one hand it was nice to see Max and Sara struggle with their old lives combining with their newborn and the introduction of Max’s brother, there was still a lot of screwing going around and the time jump actually drove me loopy.